Friday, December 23, 2005

Democrats, In Denial...

What the Democrats are saying, and simultaneously denying they are saying:

Let's roll the dice. It's been more than four years since terrorists slipped past American intelligence, eluded law enforcement and slaughtered thousands of Americans on American soil.Why haven't they managed to strike us here at home again? Who knows? Maybe it's nothing we've done. Maybe it's sheer luck. Maybe our luck will hold. So let's take a chance, OK?Sure, there is a possibility that one reason we have not been hit lately is the Patriot Act -- the major legislative initiative of the post-9/11 era........Critics of the Patriot Act argue that it could– at some point down the slippery slope -- lead to some nosy FBI agent discovering that you borrow Harlequin romance novels from your local library. One must suppose it was with that grim prospect in mind that Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid proudly declared last week: “We killed the Patriot Act!” We should withdraw from Iraq as quickly as possible, too. Henry Kissinger says that such a defeat “would shrivel U.S. credibility around the world. … The respite from military efforts would be brief before even greater crises descended on us.” But Cindy Sheehan sees it differently. We might as well flip a coin. Finally, it's time we asked: What was wrong with the policies we had in place before Sept. 11, 2001? Terrorism wasn't much of a problem in those days. Yes, there were attacks against Americans in Lebanon, Kenya, Tanzania, Saudi Arabia and off the coast of Yemen. But you're willing to accept that level of terrorism indefinitely, aren't you? And, after the first bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993, intelligence and law enforcement officials, using all the tools then available to them, were so effective that it took the terrorists almost a decade before they could finish the job they had started, reducing the twin towers to rubble. Who could ask for more than that?About a half dozen people were killed in the 1993 attack. In 2001, close to 3,000 were incinerated or buried. So if we take all the precautions we took in the past, we can anticipate that next time -- well, you do the math. The point is, you'd prefer to lose a city or two rather than have our friends in Europe think we're a bunch of cowboys, wouldn't you? By Clifford May...read it all here: http://www.defenddemocracy.org/in_the_media/in_the_media_show.htm?doc_id=330149